Score and parts for hire

My concerto starts softly, high in the cello's register, and gently and slowly falls towards the 'earth' of a heavy-footed hocket for cello and orchestra (coloured by two exotic drums: a Taiko and three Djuns Djuns). The orchestra amplifies and extends the timbre of the cello: particularly the dark (low brass, drums and timpani), the lyrical (the flugel horn, for instance) and the soft (low flutes, whispering strings. . . ). When I wrote the piece I was haunted by the alchemical notion that the night sky is blackest just before dawn ('the darkness, darker that darkness' I think Jung said) and then turns white with the dawn. I wrote my cello concerto in memory of the young composer and flute player Jo Johnson, who died last year.

© John Woolrich